Kathmandu, May 15 -- The government has amended the ministries' business rules and reduced the number of federal ministries to 18 from 21. Likewise, the government also assigned more authority to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

According to the new business rules, the Intelligence Department, the country's premier intelligence-gathering unit, has been brought under the purview of the Prime Minister's Office. It had only been shifted from the PMO to the Home Ministry a few months ago.

In March 2018, the former prime minister KP Oli had brought the Intelligence Department under the purview of the PMO from the home ministry and the decision had sparked controversy. In addition, Oli had also brought the Department of Money Laundering Inv...